Your Right to Know

Still smarting from jokes about Florida’s inability to run statewide elections, state
legislators approved a package of election-law revisions yesterday to give voters more time and
locations to cast their ballots.

Senate Minority Leader Chris Smith, a Democrat, said the package was an improvement on
restrictions imposed in 2011, when the number of days that polls were open for voting before
November’s Election Day was drastically reduced, but he said there is still a long way to go.

The bill, which Republican Gov. Rick Scott has said he would sign, allows county elections
supervisors to increase the number of early-voting days to 14 from eight.

To reduce waiting time at courthouses and election offices, supervisors also may use more and
larger sites for popular early voting, such as civic centers.

The bill also moves the date of the state’s presidential primary to conform with rules set by
the national political parties, potentially helping Sen. Marco Rubio, considered a possible
front-runner for the Republican Party nomination in 2016.